PORTLAND – As several family members and victims looked on, Carol Field of Standish was sentenced to prison Tuesday morning for setting fire to a Raymond church, among other arsons.

Field, the 66-year-old grandmother and former nurse who lived on Standish Glen off Route 35 in Standish, pleaded guilty last week to six counts of arson. She received 10 years in prison with all but four years suspended, which she will serve at Maine Correctional Center in Windham. Upon release, she will be subject to 8 years of probation.

Field made a brief apology prior to sentencing by Justice Roland Cole.

“I want to say that I am very sorry, and that I did not hurt anybody, and I’m sorry that I committed these actions,” she said.

Field’s apology was welcomed by victims of the arson that severely damaged the Raymond Hill Baptist Church. The church was built in 1834 and sustained about $200,000 worth of damage in the arson that took place July 26, 2011.

Longtime congregant and caretaker Deb Baker said the church structure is well on its way to full rehabilitation, and even celebrated a memorial service for a former pastor that took place last Sunday inside the once charred and smoke-damaged structure. She credited initial fire suppression by the Raymond Fire-Rescue Department and subsequent insurance reimbursement and private donations.

“This brings closure,” Baker said of the plea deal and sentencing. “It could have gone on much longer. To have all this settled within 13 to 14 months, we are fortunate. It allows us to move forward.”

Another arson victim, Limerick farmer James Brackett, who lost a large barn along with antique tools and implements that had been in the family for three generations, wrote a letter to the court in which he stated, “I feel the loss is extremely personal [and similar to] the loss of two to three family members all at one time.”

Brackett, as did Baker, expressed the desire that Field get help for any underlying mental issues that led her to commit arson.

Field’s lawyer, J.P. DeGrinney, of Portland-based DeGrinney Law Offices, responded on behalf of his client to the victims’ comments.

“We are moved by the statements … We’re very grateful that the folks who were so negatively impacted by this case have taken a view that it’s appropriate for Carol to get help and have not been vengeful,” he said. “They obviously want some justice done, but they have not taken a vengeful stance with her, and she does appreciate that.”

AGREEMENT REACHED

Prior to the hearing, state prosectutors and DeGrinney met to hammer out the punishment, which was approved Tuesday by Justice Cole. According to Cumberland County Assistant District Attorney Angela Cannon, the state avoided a jury trial thanks to Field’s confession to six of the 10 counts. Cannon also was satisfied with the probation that, as DeGrinney stated in court, will keep Field “on a very tight leash” once she gets out of prison in another three years. (Field has already served a year in jail.)

“She’s taken responsibility,” Cannon said. “It’s always a risk when you go to trial – a risk to her and a risk to the state because she could have been found not guilty.”

Cannon said Field, who is said to have started as many as 18 woods or vacant structure fires in York and Cumberland counties, was initially charged with 10 counts of arson, and was sentenced for six.

“She admitted to many more,” Cannon added, “but we weren’t able to charge her with all of those other ones because we can’t use someone’s confession to a crime unless we can prove that a crime happened. And in many of those instances, those fires weren’t investigated as crimes.”

DeGrinney agrees the sentence – with the potential for further jail time of up to 16 additional years if Field re-offends – is a fair one. Her age, criminal history and guilty plea were all mitigating factors in the sentencing.

“We ended up reaching an agreement based on the fact that she didn’t have a substantial criminal history; she was willing to accept responsibility; the victims on almost all of these matters were upset and in some cases very upset but also were not saying she needs to go to prison for 30 years,” DeGrinney said. “So that certainly moved things along toward people having some meeting of the minds in terms of what’s fair and what’s not.

“I think from our perspective, when the state is looking at your client for 18 fires and thinking that each fire is up to 30 years [in prison] per fire, at some point in time it’s best if you can reach an agreement like the one here today.”

ROOT CAUSE

Field was arrested in early October 2011 and hired DeGrinney immediately. After almost a year representing his client, DeGrinney has little inkling as to what motivated the former nurse and Subway sandwich shop employee to commit the multiple arsons.

During Tuesday’s hearing, DeGrinney said his client had undergone a mental health evaluation that determined she suffered from depression and anxiety, conditions that wouldn’t render her unable to determine right from wrong.

“She got a clean bill of mental health from her evaluations, but that’s not to say she doesn’t have some issues that need to be worked on,” he said.

When asked more about Field’s mental state, DeGrinney said, “Nobody really has a grasp … Carol is a very complicated person, and you don’t always get what’s on her mind.”

DeGrinney said Field knew what she was doing when she set the fires.

“It’s not as if she was insane and didn’t understand what she was doing. But she is certainly a complicated person,” he said. “I know she never intended for anyone to get physically hurt, but I don’t think she understood the mental level of anguish that you could cause somebody by burning down the family barn or by damaging a church. I don’t think she was intending any of that. I think that she didn’t have the foresight that she should have used. And I think that it’s fair that the state, going forward, was making sure this never happens again.”

With by attorney J.P. DeGrinney, Carol Field, the 66-year-old Standish grandmother and former nurse, stands while being sentenced Tuesday to four years in prison and eight years of probation for committing six arsons in Cumberland and York counties. (Staff photo by John Balentine)
Carol Field of Standish was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison with all but four suspended.